A Spotlight on the Cruelty of Rodeos with the Vancouver Humane Society, and Activist Profile: Zoe Rosenberg

Listen to this show here!

To start this show, we talk about two significant events that happened in the community this past week. Last week, around 400 animal advocates took over the streets of downtown Vancouver to participate in the 3rd annual global March to Close All Slaughterhouses.

And we discuss the presentation that Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) founder Ingrid Newkirk gave in Vancouver this week, as part of her North American speaking tour. To find out more about the life work of animal rights pioneer Ingrid Newkirk, you can listen to last week’s show here, in which we did a feature interview with her.

For our first interview, we have Peter Fricker on the show. He is the Communications Director of the Vancouver Humane Society, which is a local registered charity dedicated to the humane treatment of animals and encourages individuals, organizations, and governments to take responsibility for the welfare and rights of domestic animals and wildlife influenced by human activities.

It’s once again rodeo season, and Peter shares with us the harsh realities of the rodeo and VHS’ current campaign to have the cruelest rodeo events stopped at the upcoming Chilliwack Fair. The Chilliwack Fair is set to take place from August 10th to 12th.

VHS has long been campaigning against other BC rodeos and the Calgary Stampede in Alberta. This year, they are asking the public to urge the rodeo’s four major sponsors to call for a stop to animal cruelty. They are calling for the Chilliwack Fair to drop the calf-roping, steer-wrestling and team-roping events, all of which subject animals to fear, pain and stress for the sake of entertainment.

You can find out more about this campaign and sign the petition to the sponsors here.

Activist Profile: 16 year old Zoe Rosenberg

Our feature interview is with Zoe Rosenberg, an animal activist from the central coast of California who just turned 16 this week!

When Zoe was only 11 years old in 2014, she founded the Happy Hen Animal Sanctuary, a non-profit organization which has since rescued over 700 animals from certain death. Zoe is also an organizer and social media coordinator for the grassroots animal liberation network Direct Action Everywhere. She travels around the country speaking on behalf of animal rights, in hopes of inspiring people to get outside of their comfort zones and into activism.

She also did a TedXTalk this February that has reached 43,000 viewers so far, speaking on her convictions to fight for animal liberation.

Zoe was one of the rescuers in the recent Mass Open Rescue at an egg farm in Petaluma, California two weeks ago, which can be seen here on Facebook Live. In this interview, she speaks about this experience and how the 36 rescued chickens are doing now, as they are new residents at her sanctuary. They will be able to now live out the rest of their lives in peace, and carrying out natural behaviours such as dust bathing in the sunlight, which they have already begun to explore.

Zoe also tells us how she came to be an animal activist at 11 years old, when she began to learn what is happening to animals in our world of exploitation and a status quo of complacency and violence, which is seen as the norm. She speaks about the urgency of animal rights issues, and how we can get out of our comfort zones to speak up for the animals and fight for animal liberation.

To celebrate Zoe’s work and to support the 36 rescued hens from the Mass Open Rescue, you can donate at her online Facebook fundraiser here. Or at the Happy Hen Animal Sanctuary website here.

Here is Zoe’s recent TedXTalk – may you be inspired to follow your convictions for social justice issues!